Saying that Iraq has become a meeting place for the parties with different views, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani stressed that Baghdad will try to improve relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi held on Thursday a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the situation in Syria and cooperation in transport and energy.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian is scheduled to pay a visit to Turkey tomorrow, Tuesday, January 17.

The 19th meeting of the Iran-Turkey joint consular commission was held in the Iranian capital on Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a press conference in Damascus along with his Syrian counterpart that Iran played a role in preventing the looming Turkey's operation in northern Syria.

The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met and held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday in Damascus.

Following the visit of one of its senior officials to Iraq, the German Foreign Ministry emphasized the country's support for the stability of Iraq and talks with the authorities in Baghdad and Erbil in this regard.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani removed on Monday Central Bank of Iraq Gov. Mustafa Ghaleb Mukheef and head of the Trade Bank of Iraq Salem Chalabi.

A member of the political office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) revealed the details of the differences between the two parties of the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and announced: "We are not enemies with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, both sides are trying to attract the largest number of voters."

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said on Tuesday that his country will not pull out its troops from Iraq, claiming that Amsterdam will continue to train Iraqi forces.

The process of joint action in oil and gas issues was one of the most prominent topics of Saturday's talks between the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani and the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Baghdad.

The MEES weekly newspaper reported the weakening position of the Kurdish card in Baghdad due to the increase in tensions between the two Kurdish parties of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled out of a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz scheduled for January 27 in Berlin, RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) reports.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that Sweden should not expect backing from Turkey for its NATO membership bid. The Turkish president made the comments on Monday, following a protest in the Swedish capital which angered Turkish officials.

Finland’s defense ministry said Wednesday the country had issued the first commercial export license for military materiel to Turkey since 2019 — a key demand for Ankara to approve Helsinki’s NATO bid, Agence France-Presse reported.

According to Western media reports, along with Kurdish protests in Sweden, opponents of NATO expansion in the country protested against NATO expansion and the country to join it last Saturday.

Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas has said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not legally eligible to run in the upcoming presidential election and that he will challenge his candidacy with the country’s election authority.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that Turkey’s elections will be held on May 14 — a month earlier than scheduled — as the opposition still searches for a unified candidate to stand against him, Agence France-Presse reported.

No regional power has tried to oust the Syrian regime as openly as Turkey. Since the start of war in Syria in 2011, Turkey trained and armed opposition groups, hosted millions of Syrian refugees, and in 2020 even directly clashed with regime forces. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has called Syrian President Bashar al Assad a “murderer” and called on the international community to hold him accountable.

Representatives from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the French government stressed in a meeting on Sunday that anti-terrorism support for the AANES should not be limited to the military aid, but include economic and humanitarian help as well.

As the Turkish-Syrian dialogue advances and the prospect of Ankara pulling the plug on its Syrian allies looms large for the rebels, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the jihadi outfit holding sway in Idlib, appears eager to take advantage of the confusion in the rebels' ranks and expand its control.

A building collapsed in a neighborhood in Syria's northern city of Aleppo early Sunday, killing at least 16 people, including one child, and injuring four others, state media reported.

The Turkish forces shelled on Friday the posts of the Syrian government forces in the northern countryside of Aleppo Governorate.

The Syrian National Coordinating Committee issued a statement calling on the Syrian government to rebuild Syria and return the refugees to their original areas instead of getting close to Turkey.